Thoughts from the interface of science, religion, law and culture

After spending several years touring the country as a stand up comedian, Ed Brayton tired of explaining his jokes to small groups of dazed illiterates and turned to writing as the most common outlet for the voices in his head. He has appeared on the Rachel Maddow Show and the Thom Hartmann Show, and is almost certain that he is the only person ever to make fun of Chuck Norris on C-SPAN.

EVENTS

Ted Nugent: Super Patriot

While appearing at a concert in Alpharetta, Georgia, Ted Nugent recorded a backstage tribute to the troops. I wonder if he had crapped his pants before he did it, you know, as a sign of his “heartfelt” appreciation of the guys he called “chumps” and “imbeciles” when he was dodging the draft in Vietnam. But that’s okay. He has a yellow ribbon on his Hummer and owns a lot of guns, so that proves what a warrior and patriot he is, right?

In order to better hide from his civic duty? Or maybe to avoid getting busted by state and/or federal fish and game officials, since he keeps getting banned from hunting for ignoring the rules. He’s even too much of a wimp to hunt herbivors without cheating!

Reminds me of my father. While he was in ROTC in college, he got a draft deferment and when he was offered to take a tour in Vietnam voluntarily, he declined the invitation. Today he still snarls and yells about about Jane Fonda, Bill Clinton, John Kerry, and every other American who dodged the draft or “pissed on our soldiers” by protesting the war while bellowing about “duty, honor, God, and country!”

I remember being at a concert of his in Edmonton, when he went off yelling about how much he liked Canada ending with this howl, “IlikeitIlikeitIlikit..” for so long I finally yelled, “Then shut up and just move here then, fuck.”

I am so happy he didn’t. I was just 18 and had no idea of his politics, but after that concert I stopped liking him because he was such a screwed up imbecile. And I liked KISS!

I think the troops hes saluting would rather he volunteered to buy them all a beer upon returning from duty over seas. Or send them Socks and t-shirts and other things they could use while theyer still deployed in Afghanistan. Seems a much more practical use of his “energy and spirit”

I’ve seen him twice. Once in the early-1980s at a 10,000 person field and then between 2002-2003 in San Diego at a bar with hundreds of others. If you’re into hard rock he’s a great show because he’s a fantastic guitar talent.

I knew nothing of his politics at the first concert in the early-1980s nor do I recall him making any arguments; he did wear a loincloth and American Indian headdress along with a colonial-era blue military jacket. He was the loudest of the forty-some bands I heard back in that period. He did not make my “best concerts” list but was good. J. Geils on their Love Stinks tour was my favorite show.

The second concert in 2002 or ’03 was filled with zenophobic rants. Nugent started the concert with a Hendrix-tinged Star-Spangled Banner which the audience grew weary of since he dragged it out. After that he was excellent playing-wise, but did himself no favors with the crowd when he talked. He was bragging about how he just got back from a concert tour of Europe where he claimed to malign his audiences for not blindly supporting our country’s drumbeats for war in Iraq.

Most of the audience up front was new Marines given the locale. They were not encouraging his rants but instead were yelling out for him to play.

Yup. Great Patriot. I remember back in my school days, learnin’ about George “General” Washington, crapping his pants to avoid fightin’ the British. Remember the painting, “Washington sitting on one side of the Delaware, telling everybody else that they should cross”?

I agree with you that Teddy Teabag is a xenophobic prick. I don’t agree that he’s all that with the geetar. I live in the Syracuse, NY area and previously spent a lot of years in and around Boston. Ted would not make my top 500 guitar players–that’s he’s a xenophobic prick, liar and misogynist just makes it easier to dismiss his buffoonery.

Since all I know about Eddie Van Halen is his rock ouvre, I’m gonna go with Jeff Beck. Van Halen is quite talented but I never heard him play jazz.

There’s an aussie fella, Geoff Atchison, who played at the Oswego Harbor Fest a few years back that put on a show that was pretty incredible. In an era of guitar players with so many foot pedals and effects boxes that they can’t walk across the stage without tripping a switch, I watched him play two sets on consecutive nights with his guitar and a borrowed amp that were incredible.

Oz Noy,an Israeli who now spends most of his time in the states, is not the opposite of Geoff Achison but I saw him at the SUNY Oswego Guitar Symposium a while back and he had enough effects pedals to fill a music/electronics store–and used them all.

Loren Barrigar and Williman Yelverton are two great guitarists who I’ve only heard play acoustic. Barrigar has been playing all kinds of music for many years (he played at the Grand Ole Opry) when he was six or seven); Mr. Yelverton, originally of Binghamton, NY now resides near Murfreesboro, TN teaching at Middle Tennessee State and performing. His classical technique is incredible.

Bobby Keyes/Bobby Keyes Trio* is on Thrillionaire Records. Bobby is someone I didn’t see play for almost twenty five years (1976-2001) and after his first couple of tunes I was thinking “Dick Dale meets Wes Montgomery).

Those are just five guitarists of the hundreds that I’ve listened to in live venues over the past 40 years. I cannot play to save my ass nor do I really understand the process of doing so, but I can tell when I’m listening to someone who plays, at a consistently high level, across many styles of music.

I’m sure that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of guitarists who are favorites of other commenters. I don’t generally rank players except in the sense that they’re, to be be technical, FUCKING AWESOME!!

Give any of these five a listen or watch, It Might Get Loud” with Jimmy Page, The Edge and Jack White. Regardless your musical tastes I think you will agree that all of these people are fabulous musicians and that Teddy Teabag is not in their league.

OTOH, none of them, afaia, know how to “jack” deer or shoot them over bait.

I just put this in a post at my place (polrant.blogspot.com) if anybody wants to weigh in, here or there, with their own faves.

* I’ve seen the Bobby Keyes Trio about 10-12 times and rarely seen the same drummer or bassist more than a few times, although Marty Ballou, a great bassist, has played with him on probably 4-6 of those occasions.